iOS beats Android hands down for overall reach

Ready for some generally pointless but vaguely interesting stats? We thought you were, and thanks to the good people of comScore, we can indulge you.

The latest number-crunching concerns the iPad, and reveals that while Android has pretty much killed off the competition in the smartphone game, the picture looks totally different the moment you factor Apple's not-so-humble tablet into the mix.

ComScore's latest survey spoke to a cross-section of 30,000 mobile users across the Atlantic, and revealed that in total, iOS – Apple's mobile platform present on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch – reached a total of 37.9 million people, versus a comparatively paltry 23.8 million for Android. If you prefer your stats in percentages, iOS wins by a handsome 59%.

“The finding is incredible because it shows that Android being the most popular smartphone is not the whole story,” said Mark Donovan, comScore's senior vice president. Considering how widely known the iPad's near-complete dominance of the tablet market is, we wouldn't use the word 'incredible' ourselves, but it's not our survey. His next comment was equally enlightening: “publishers, developers and advertisers are trying to understand how to reach audiences, and the study shows that users are using a range of devices.”

The study also revealed a bit more about iPad owners themselves, showing for example that 41.4% have not yet received a college degree (though considering the survey spoke to mobile users as young as 13, a good number have a fairly understandable excuse).

In terms of age, the biggest group (27%) fell in the 25-34 bracket, while almost exactly half of the 7.8 million people in total who own iPads in the US say their income tops $100,000 a year.

Probably the most interesting stat of all for our money is the fact that just 27.3% of iPad owners are also iPhone owners, though Android's number (14%) is smaller still, and 'Other' (41%) takes the biggest slice of the pie. We're not altogether sure what the significance is, but it seems quite an eye-opener.